Never Letting You Go
by fireboltwiccan
Summary: Charlie/Hermione. How can he take the pain away from her?Take the hurt out her eyes?When he caused them. It's time he made things right.


_**Never Letting You Go…**_

**Another Charlie/Hermione one shot. I'll warn you now its not as good as **_**And this time it stuck**_**, but it doesn't suck and it's a love story. Enjoy!**

There were many reasons why Charlie Weasley should have been happy.

He was at a party.

He was amongst his family and friends.

They were celebrating the down fall of Voldemort and Harry's survival.

Nobody he was close to had lost their lives over the last few months.

These were just a few. Yet he was not.

He hadn't been happy for a good two weeks now. No one, not even Bill the one person he was closest to, knew why. And no matter how many times someone asked and no matter who that person was they got the same reply, "Nothing's wrong," in a dark tone. Eventually they all gave up and decided to just let him stew and get over it. But he knew this problem he had was not something he was going to get over easily. He didn't want to get over it. He wanted _her_. Back.

Her, how could she act so normally, as though nothing had happened between them. Her laughter was mocking him and enticing him at the same time. Her voice was haunting him. And her body invaded his dreams as if to remind him that he could no longer have any of it.

He was standing in one corner of the room, glaring at anybody who came within 3 feet of him. But most of the time his glare was directed at one person in particular.

Hermione Granger.

She could feel his gaze on her as she talked to Harry and Ron. She knew he was staring at her, the same way he had been the whole night. She'd done her best to ignore it but she was getting a little nervous. Would he do something? Part of her wished he would, so that they could get all the bad blood that had accumulated over the last 2 weeks flow freely. But the more sensible part of her knew that a confrontation between them in front of almost everyone she knew would do no one any good.

She sighed, excused herself under the pretense of getting something to drink and walked to the opposite end of the room and headed to the bathroom and locked herself in it.

Why had she come? She knew it was going to be hard, but she didn't think it would be this hard. She had tried to put on a game face and act normally but how could she when he did nothing but stare at her the whole damn night?!

If only things hadn't gone sour. Then they'd be enjoying the party like they should be. But they couldn't and there was nothing she could do about it now. 4 months of relationship just down the drain because of one fight. One fight where things were said. Things that couldn't be taken back. She'd told him she loved him and he'd told her he panicked. She wanted to tell the others about them, he wanted to still keep it a secret. She asked why and he exploded saying he didn't want to get married.

_Hermione stood there shell shocked, "Married?!" she squeaked._

"_Yes!" Charlie exclaimed, "Mum's been hounding me to get a nice girl and settle down with her!"_

"_Charlie, this is me we're talking about. If she knows its me she won't say anything like that! I'm 19 for god's sake!" _

_Charlie shook his head, "You don't understand, I'm her son. The only one who, she thinks anyways, doesn't have a girlfriend or is any close to getting married any time soon. And she'll do anything." He was close to hysteria now. "I can't get married. Not now, not to you, not to anyone!"_

_Hermione felt like she had been slapped, "Not to me." She echoed, "Is marriage to me that hard to even contemplate Charlie? I'm not saying that we should get married but you don't have act like I repulse you!" She yelled._

"_That's not what I meant and you know it!" he yelled back._

"_No I don't! Tell me Charlie! Tell me what you meant when you said you couldn't be married to me?! Is 'cos I'm too young for you? That didn't seem to be a problem the last 4 months. Is it because I'm working for the ministry? That can't be it either, seeing as how members of your family work there too! I'm running out of reasons Charlie! You--"_

"_SHUT UP!!" He roared._

_He moved until he was directly in front of her, towering over her. "Why can't you just accept the fact that I'm not ready to tell anybody that I'm with you!" he said, his voice extremely controlled._

_She stared into his dark blue eyes, "Because, I don't want to be hidden. Because I love your family and I hate lying to them! Be-"_

"_You think that I like it?! Lying to my family?!"_

"_Well you must otherwise you wouldn't have been doing it for the last 4 months, despite me wanting not to! Either that or you're so ashamed of me that you don't want to introduce me as your girlfriend." _

_His eyes narrowed at her, "Get out."_

_She gasped, "Excuse me?"_

_He continued to glare at her, "You heard me, get out."_

"_Is that an ultimatum?" she asked quietly._

"_It is what it is. If you cannot accept me not wanting to tell my family about us then you can leave and we're done."_

_She felt the moisture in her eyes threatening to fall out. She averted her eyes, "Fine," she said and she grabbed her bag and left._

Hermione stared at her reflection on the mirror and saw her cheeks stained from the escaped tears. That was two whole weeks ago and yet here she was, still crying over it. It had hurt so much. Charlie was a part of her life that had been different. He'd helped her during the war so much. He helped her get rid of her worries and her self doubts. He made her feel special and wanted. He was her first. Her first boyfriend, her first love and now he was part of her first break up.

She sighed and wiped away any reminiscence of the stray tears on her face. She couldn't stay in there forever. As she walked in the direction of the main living room she realized, as she stood at the entrance, she couldn't go in there. Not yet, she couldn't face everyone's cheerful attitude when she felt like she was dying inside. She turned and headed outside, where she could clear her head.

Charlie knew the exact moment Hermione left the house. The hairs on his neck weren't standing on end and his heart had stopped beating really fast. But he'd also seen her leave and he couldn't help but want to kick himself. He knew she thought she could cover it up but he saw the look panic and the hurt in his eyes. He hated that he was the one who caused it and wished that he could take the pain away from her.

Hermione leaned against the Burrow's garden fence and took in a gulp of fresh air, tinged with the smell of freshly mowed grass.

"The party's inside the house you know."

She stiffened. What was he doing here?! She heard the gate open and his footsteps approaching her but she didn't dare turn and look. "I know, I just wanted to come out for a while." She said quietly.

"I…"He started to say but them stopped.

They stood there, in silence, for a long time. It could have been 10 minutes or an hour or even several lifetime but whenever she was with him she lost track of the time, when Charlie spoke, breaking their silence.

"The thing about Weasley's is that we all inherited mum's temper but it's for some of us its easier to bring out than others. Ron is a good example, Ginny too and…and me." He said. He moved so that he was standing in front of her, he tilted her head so that she was looking directly into his eyes.

"I never meant to hurt you, Hermione." She tried to look away but he held her head steadily in place. "You need to know that. All those things I said, I said out of anger. And I didn't mean most of them. I meant it when I said I didn't want to get married, not anytime soon. And I meant it when I said that I wasn't ready to tell my family about us. I didn't want our relationship to be plagued by my mum's constant nagging, my dad's constant questions and my brother's never ended teasing. I wanted it to be about us. Just you and me" He paused and took a breath, "When I asked you to leave I didn't really want you to or expect you to. I wanted you to know that I was bluffing that I never wanted you to leave. Ever."

He took her small, smooth hands in his big ones and pulled her closer to him, "I love you Hermione Granger. And that scared me, I've never loved any girl before and I thought…I though you might not love me back and I couldn't stand that. Then you told me you did and I panicked. I don't know why I did it, but I did. I take back any of it but I want to try and make it better. If you'll let me?"

Charlie held his breath waiting for her reaction. Would she accept him back? Or would she kick him to the street?

What he did not expect was her flinging herself on him and kissing him as though her life depended on him. Not that he was complaining but it did surprise him. And then just as suddenly she pulled away from him and said, "I may love you Charlie Weasley but if you ever, and I mean _ever_ pull a stunt like that for **two week**s I swear I will kill you! Do you have any idea how upset I was?!"

Charlie simply grinned and pulled her into his arms, "No need to worry about that love, I'm never letting you go."

Hermione grinned back at him, "And I'm making sure you don't let go."

**It short, simple. It may not be great but I like it. What do you think? Read and Review!!!**


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